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JOURNEY TO THE CRADLE OF EUROPE

Documentary film (45, 52, 84 min.) by Petrus van der Let

Archaeologist Otto Benndorf headed several expeditions to Lycia in the 1880s. Elaborate illustrations of Homer’s epics were found on the stones of a burial site: the Heroon of Trysa is decorated with 200m of friezes and 600 figures. On a visit to Vienna in the 1990s, the Turkish Minister of Culture questioned whether the friezes were rightfully in Austrian hands.
An investigation also with Turkish specialists showed now after many years that the Heroon of Trysa is rightfully in Austria, because it respected all its agreements with the Osmanic Empire.
The documentary film also unveils possible historical and psychological backgrounds of Iliad and Odyssey: do monsters like the Chimera with 3 heads have their origin in infant perception? Did the Trojan War really happen? Is Odysseus a historical person? Or is he a figure in the tradition of Indra and Mithra from the old Indian Rigveda?

Versions:
45min., 52min.: the Austrian expedition to the Heroon of Trysa and possible historical backgrounds of Iliad and Odyssey
52min.: historical and psychological backgrounds.

84min.-version with the title ODYSSEY IN DIAPERS: Caves make good cult sites for gods, as this is also how we see the world as babies in our first few weeks: a dark cave, penetrated by rays of light as our vision improves. These contrasts stay in our subconscious all our lives. Influenced by the teachings of the Iranian prophet Zarathustra, the Greek philosopher Plato applied these infant memories in his State to society at large in his allegory of the cave. Plato’s state is a totalitarian theocracy. As the infant depends on his parents, the citizen in Plato’s state depends on official authority. Art and culture are censored out of consideration for the gods, and even sexual partners are selected by the magistrate, not the individual.
Theocratic ideas of this sort have survived in Christianity and Islam till today but also in the totalitarian ideologies of the 20th century. The ariosophy of Adolf Lanz Liebenfels, a forerunner
of the Nazis, shows how regression can produce also a deadly collective madness.

All versions with English subtitles available.

Together with the films GODS WITH POINTED CAPS – Why Indra came to the Wedding on a Tricycle (45 min. version of WHERE THE GODS COME FROM) and PUNCH & PROPHECY, JOURNEY TO THE CRADLE OF EUROPE forms a mini-series in 3 parts.

• Production: A Coproduction of Petrus van der Let Film
  with Filmproduktion Benjamin Epp, ORF, 3sat, BRalpha, PLANET, Filmfunds Lower Austria and Styria, TV-FUND AUSTRIA.
• Format: HDV, Beta Digital, 16:9, Pal, stereo
• Camera, Editing: Benjamin Epp
• Music: Peter Uwira, Georg Albert, Spiros Arsenis
• Locations: Greece, Turkey, Germany, Austria, Spain.
• World-sales: vanderlet.p@aon.at
• Festivals: MEDIMED Sitges Spain 07; Nominated for the Ahmed Attia's Award for the Dialogue of Cultures; awarded best film of culture at the European Science Filmfestival, Vienna November 2007. Festival Internazionale del Film Archeologico di Rovereto, Italy (October 2008).
  www.archeologiaviva.tv/ondemand/viaggio-nella-culla-delleuropa
  www.sperimentarea.tv/ondemand/viaggio-nella-culla-delleuropa
  The film opened the 10^th International Festival of Archaeological Films in Belgrade on 9th March 2009.
• TV: BRalpha 13^th August 2007 9:00pm; PLANET, Germany, broadcasts all 3 parts of the mini-series in September 2007;
  3sat 14th of April 2008 at 11:25pm and 3sat 5th of March 2012 at 3:45pm and 3sat 29th of January 2013 at 3:15pm.
• DVD-Video "JOURNEY TO THE CRADLE OF EUROPE" - National Film Network, U.S.A. www.nationalfilmnetwork.com 
• Trailer: www.youtube.com/user/AlibriVerlag
• Interviews and off-narration: Where the Gods come from (PDF)